With new heated building, Wright-Locke Farm to become year-round hub for outdoor learning

Mariya Manzhos

Friday

Dec 14, 2018 at 1:38 AMDec 14, 2018 at 5:52 PM

During winter months, Winchester’s Wright-Locke Farm, a serene 20-acre territory with ponds, trails, and vibrant schedule for children and adults, shuts down. And the reason for that has been mainly logistical -- the farm doesn’t have a heated building to hold programs and activities when the weather gets dreary. But it’s all about to change with the new All Seasons Barn the farm’s team is planning to build in 2020.

The new building, a simple rectangular barn, will replace the northernmost of the farm’s four buildings-- the dilapidated yellow building on the hill. The current design of the All Seasons Barn is a simplified and less expensive version of what the team had originally envisioned for the project. The team estimates the project to cost $3.2 million -- as opposed to the original $4.8 million estimate. And to date, they’re more than half way toward their goal. This week the farm’s team announced a generous challenge gift of $250,000: the farm raises the funds, the donors match it.

“The new building will change what we’re able to do in terms of physical space, but also the nature of our programing,” said Lia O’Donnell, the president of the Wright-Locke Farm Conservancy.

Expanding Wright-Locke Farm's mission

The new All Seasons Barn will allow the farm to follow the academic schedule and better fit in with local schools' programing. The new kitchen inside the barn will convene various food-related workshops, such as how to cook food for chemotherapy-friendly diets, for instance, or those struggling with eating disorders. “It’s more about teaching a person to fish versus giving them a fish,” said Kimberly Kneeland, community engagement manager and development manager at Wright-Locke Farm. Local food and social justice organizations like Arlington EATS and Winchester Got Lunch could also use the barn for their community meals. O’Donnell said the team would also like to explore offering a forest kindergarten program.

If fundraising and all necessary approvals from the town go smoothly, the team hopes the construction would start in October of 2019 and the building would open by the summer of 2020. “It’s a pretty tight timeframe,” said Archie McIntyre, Wright-Locke Farm’s executive director. “But we think it’s achievable.”

But the All Seasons Barn is also about about sustaining the farm financially and ensuring the farm can be financially solvent for years to come. Now, the farm operates only seven months a year, said McIntyre. During the other five, not much happens. “When you’re not generating revenues, it’s challenging,” said McIntyre. The new barn is an integral part of the farm's future, Kneeland said. “It’s going to allow us to be here for generations to come and serve more groups of people,” she said.

And extend the farm's reach beyond Winchester. “[The next five years] is about stabilizing our financial model and starting to really cement our place as a regional center for learning -- setting precedents how you do education outdoors, how you educate children about preserving the environment,” said O’Donnell.

The heart of the community

O’Donnell, who succeeded Sally Quinn as president of the board, recalls coming to the farm for the first time stunned at the view she saw from the driveway. “Walking into the barn and seeing all these untouched things, it was this amazing feeling that there is this huge untapped resource that just has been given to the public, and what are we going to make of it?” O’Donnell said.

Overtime, the farm has grown into a “beautiful heart of the community,” she said. “The farm is a gathering place that exists in your mind even when you’re not here. You know you’re a part of the farm family whether you’re here or if you just live in Winchester and value the farm for being here.”

Kneeland said to some of the volunteers the farm has become a “third place” -- a place of belonging outside of home and work, like church, public library or cafe. “I think this place is very much that for people,” said Kneeland. “It’s a place of calm, restoration, relaxation, and discovery.”